Medical simulation has emerged as an important new tool that allows risk-free training and evaluation among healthcare providers. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, "To Err is Human," identified medical simulation as an opportunity for enhancing patient safety in the same way that flight simulation is used to enhance quality in aviation. Following on the IOM report, AHRQ recently offered the first grants targeted specifically for simulation-based research. Emergency Medicine, a field which crosses disciplines in a complex environment, is well positioned to help foster collaborative simulation-based research. For this reason, the Editors of Academic Emergency Medicine are convening a research consensus conference entitled, "The Science of Simulation in Healthcare." The conference will be held on May 28, 2008 in Washington, DC, the day prior to the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) annual scientific meeting. The day-long conference is intended to help define a national research agenda in the field of medical simulation, concentrating on how simulation can be used to develop and measure expertise among healthcare providers. The Simulation Consensus Conference's conceptual framework will be organized along four tracks, each designed to concentrate on a key area of simulation and clinical expertise: " Consensus Track 1: Individual/Cognitive Expertise: Global Provider Competency " Consensus Track 2 : Group Expertise: Effective Teamwork and Communication " Consensus Track 3: Technical Expertise: Procedural and Surgical Skill " Consensus Track 4: Systems Expertise: Effective Simulation at the Organizational Level (Patient Safety/Disaster/Surge) A full journal issue of Academic Emergency Medicine will be devoted to the conference topic. The issue will be published in November 2008 and will include consensus recommendations and conference proceedings, as well as peer-reviewed research manuscripts. A group of national experts, both inside and outside of the specialty of Emergency Medicine, will lead the conference and compile the proceedings. The work of the group (about 200 expected participants) is intended to help lay the foundation for fundamental contributions to medical education and patient safety across the healthcare landscape. 1 Brief Narrative: Relevance to AHRQ Mission: The Consensus Conference on the Science of Simulation in Healthcare, sponsored by the Editors of Academic Emergency Medicine, intends to define and advance a research agenda in Healthcare Simulation; this would be the first unified agenda of its kind in the field. The research agenda will apply broadly across healthcare domains, and will concentrate on how simulation can be used to optimize training methods and measure competency among medical professionals. We anticipate that research advances in this field will lead to substantial improvements in healthcare quality, principally by enhancing patient safety and reducing medical errors. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]